Grain guide and retarder for binders



Feb. 25, 1941, Q M KVQLS ETAL 2,233,290

GRAIN GUIDE AND RETARDER FOR BINDERS Filed Oct. 20, 1939 WJNVENTOM BY M A J/ ATTO NEY.

Patented Feb. 25, 1941 PATENT OFFICE GRAIN GUIDE AND RETARDER FOR BINDERS Christian M. Kvols, Hawarden, and Frank Vogelzang, Ohatsworth, Iowa Application October 20, 1939, Serial No. 300,410

Claims.

Our invention relates to a binder improvement. An object of our invention is to provide an attachment attachable toa binder deck which will automatically deflect the cut grain to a strictly 5 lateral position with respect to the packing arms,

needle arms, and other parts of the binding arrangement which forms the bundles.

A further object of our invention is to provide an attachment which will automatically deflect either short or long grain stalks uniformly so that all of the grain will be positioned laterally with respect to the binding arrangement so that there will be no waste of grain which otherwise, in travelling forwardly through the arrangement, would be lost.

A further object of our invention is to provide a series of deflecting arms of varied heights which arms are spring urged to accommodate varying masses of grain.

A further object of our invention is to provide an attachment which can be readily accommodated to standard binders and which is so arranged to cooperatively work with the needle and packer arrangement in an eflicient and uniform manner.

A further object of our invention is to provide all of the foregoing features in a simple construction.

With these and other objects in view, our invention consists in the construction, arrangement and combination of the various parts of our device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained, as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in our claims, and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Figure 1 is a sectional view taken substantially along the lines of Figure 2,

Figure 2 is a plan view taken just beneath the deflector deck.

Figure 3 is a sectional view taken substantially along the lines 33 of Figure 2, and

Figure 4 is an'enlarged detail.

In theusual construction of hinders the grain is first cut by the sickle which then falls on the horizontal belt and is carried upwardly through a pair of belts to the deck and the binding mechanism. Considerable difliculty'is experienced in maintaining the grain stalks in a strictly trans- 50 verse or lateral position throughout the process,

and as a result a portion of the grain travels either forwardly o r angularly with respect to the lateral position: Due to this fact, the bundle tieing portions of the binder will not receive cer- 55 tain portions of the stalks since they are traveling substantially forwardly, and as a result, a fairly high percentage of the grain is lost.

The principal objective of our invention is to take the grain which rises to the binding platform and to straighten the grain stalks so that they lie strictly in a lateral position and so that the bundles will thereby be formed without any waste, and are'more uniform.

We have used the character ID to designate the f upper angularly positioned conveyor belt which travels over the roller H and the character l2 to represent the lower belt positioned adjacently thereto which travels over the roller l3. The conveying slats are indicated by the character M. r The grain travels between these belts or at l5 and 15 which belts communicate with the lower horizontal belt adjacent the sickle. The idler roller is indicated by the character I6, and the upper deflector deck by the character IT.

The function of our arrangement is to take 20 the grain which is elevated by means of the belts I0 and I 2 and which passes over the roller i6 and to deflect it to a transverse position. To accomplish this result we provide the device which will now be described and which comprises essen- 25 tially a flat lengthened supporting bar I8 which is suitably attached by bolting, as explained later herein to the deck I! of the binder and just above the butt adjustor l9 which adjuster travels on the vertical rolls 20. Attached to the lengthened bar 3 I8 are a series of flexible spring steel arms 2|, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 21, and 28 which are all attached at 29 to the aforesaid bar I8. Each of these flat spring members include the arcuate bowed po-rtions 30 (see Fig. 4) which terminate in the .35 slightly upturned lips 3|. The first three members adjacent the butt adjuster l9, or the members 2|, 22, and 23, are spaced close together as shown, and the further members are spaced farther apart. The members 2|, 22 and 23 are is also progressively longer horizontally as well as downwardly and, as shown in Fig. 3, all of these" flat spring steel members project downwardly from the member [8.

The member 24 also projects to a greater distance' forwardly and downwardly and. the member 25 is correspondingly longer than the member 24 and projects forwardly and downwardly to a greater extent. The member 26, however, is shorter than the member 26, and the last member 28 is shorter than the member 21 forwardly as well as downwardly. In other words, in considering the first five spring members, it will be noted that, taken from the top of Fig. 2, they are progressively longer in both directions, and in considering the last three members 25, 21, and 28 the lengths diminish correspondingly. It will be specifically noted that all of the flat steel members are positioned angularly with respect to the bar I8, but it will also be noted that the bowed portions 30 are so bent that the planes of the bowed portions 36 are all substantially parallel to the bar l8.

The needle which is attached to the usual shaft is indicated by the character 32 and the packer points by the character 33 and the packer heel by the character 34, the approximate position of the same being as shown in Figures 1 and 2 with the usual slots provided in the deck 35 for accommodating the same, with the further slots for the other packer arms also being shown. The bar l8 being of simple structure is also provided so that it can be accommodated to any grain'binder'of any type.

Now that the structure of the device has been explained, we will explain the operation thereof. It will be noted that the grain stalks travelling upwardly between the belts in and I2, and more particularly those stalks which are more forwardly inclined, will travel in a forwardly inclined position with respect to the packer. The butt adjuster l9 carries the butt ends of the stalks forwardly, and the spring arms 2!, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 21, and 28 will tend to straighten out these stalks to a strictly tranverse position parallel to the bar l8 since the end of the stalks will be striking against the downwardly bowed portions 3c. The shorter arms 2|, 22, and 23 will straighten out the short grain stalks and due to the fact that these arms are close together, they will prevent passage of grain portions between the same. The longer arms such as 24 and 25 will retard the forward ends of the longer stalks thereby straightening them in the same manner, and as the butt adiustor travels forwardly, the tendency will be to straighten out the stalks to a strictly lateral position so that they can be picked up by the packer arms and heels and convey the material in a transverse position to the binding arrangement. The packer arrangements are positioned as shown so that the effect is most efficient.

From examination of Figure 3 it will be noted that the projection downwardly of the bowed portions 30 also insures that the longer material is straightened out and carried downwardly directly onto the packer conveying arrangements. The spring arms 26, 21, and 28 also serve an important function when the binder is travelling uphill, the normal direction of the binder being indicated by the character 36. VJhen the machine is travelling uphill, the arms 26, 21, and 28 will then be at the lowest point of the arrangement. If these arms were not provided, there would be a tendency for the material to slip past the arm 25, thereby resulting in waste of the stalks of grain which would then slip past the packing arrangements. Due .to the diminishing lengths, however, of these arms, the material is restricted and brought back to a lateral position as desired, with the diminishing depths of the arms taking care of the material in the same manner. The construction of the various arms being of fiat spring steel, permits any amount of grain to be accommodated, since they can bend upwardly for greater quantities and in this manner the arrangement will provide a resilient effect for this purpose.

For providing further adjustment of the bar I 8 we provide the pair of fiat members 31 which are attached to the bar 8, which members 31 include the slots 38, a portion of which slots run into the bar 18 itself and which slots extend forwardly a substantial distance. If desired, the entire arrangement can be supported by means of the bolts such as 39 which are attached through the slots 38 and through the deflector deck 11. These slots will permit forward or rearward positioning of the bar l8, thereby carrying the various arms forwardly or rearwardly to any desired position, and also these slots provide the additional feature of inclining the bar l8 angularly'with respect to the transverse position. This feature will accommodate the arms for different speeds and for various other purposes requiring adjustment, such .asdiff-erent types of grain, etc., since the positioning of the arms further outwardly will accommodate different quantities of grain as well as providing an adjustment for different speed ratios to prevent undue accumulation. The swinging of the arm angularly will also provide additional adjustable features so that the arms can be thus positioned to retard the grain at either end desired.

It will now be seen that we have provided an attachment which is attachable to any grain binder deck which will automatically deflect the cut grain stalks to a strictly lateral position with respect to the binding portions of the binder, that we have provided means for eliminating waste of grain which would otherwise tend to travel forwardly along the packer deck, that we have provided means for moving shorter stalks to a lateral position, and that we have provided a simple structure involving the use of only one unit member for these purposes.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of the parts of of our invention without departing from the real spirit and purpose of our invention, and it is our intention to cover by our claims any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may be reasonably included within their scope.

We claim as our invention:

1. In combination with a binder, an upper deflector deck, a lateral bar attached thereto, a plurality of spaced flat arms attached to said bar, said arms having downwardly positioned extensions, and said arms being positioned above a binder deck, said arms being slightly inclined from a position transverse to the bar, each successive adjacent arm being of increasing length with respect to the arm preceding it forwardly and downwardly, to a point substantially at the midpoint of said bar, each successive adjacent arm thence being of decreasing length with respect to the arm preceding it beyond said mid-point.

2. In combination with a binder, an upper defiector deck, a lateral bar attached thereto, a plurality of spaced fiat arms attached to said bar, said arms having downwardly positioned extensions, and said arms being positioned above a binder deck, said arms being slightly inclined from a position transverse to the bar, each successive adjacent arm being of increasing length with respect to .the arm preceding it forwardly and downwardly, to a point substantially at the midpoint of said bar, each successive adjacent arm and said arms being positioned above a binder deck, said arms being slightly inclined from a position transverse to the bar, each successive adjacent arm being cf increasing length with respect to the arm preceding it forwardly and downwardly, to a point substantially at the mid-point of said bar, each successive adjacent arm thence being of decreasing length with respect to the arm preceding it beyond said mid-point, a limited group of said arms at one end of said bar being closely spaced together, the further of said arms being spaced a substantial distance apart, said downwardly positioned extensions being substantially of an arcuate configuration and having their planes substantially parallel to said bar.

4. In combination with a binder, an upper deflector deck, a lateral bar attached thereto, a plurality of spaced fiat arms attached to said bar, said arms having downwardly positioned extensions, and said arms being positioned above a binder deck, said arms being slightly inclined from a position transverse to the bar, each successive adjacent arm being of increasing length with respect to the arm preceding it forwardly and downwardly, to a point substantially at the mid-point of said bar, each successive adjacent arm thence being of decreasing length with respect to the arm preceding it beyond said mid-point, a limited group 'of said arms at one end of said bar being closely spaced together, the further of said arms being spaced a substantial distance apart, said downwardly positioned extensions being substantially of an arcuate configuration and having their planes substantially parallel to said bar, an adjusting member comprising a pair of attaching members having lengthened slots therein, means for attaching bolts through said slots to attach said lateral bar in selected adjustable position to the upper deflector deck of the binder.

5. In combination with a binder, an upper defiector deck, a lateral bar attached thereto, a plurality of spaced flat arms attached to said bar, said arms having downwardly positioned extensions, and said arms being positioned above a binder deck, said arms being slightly inclined from a position transverse to the bar, each successive adjacent arm being of increasing length with respect to the arm preceding it forwardly and downwardly, to a substantial distance along said bar.

CHRISTIAN M. KVOLS. FRANK VOGELZANG. 

